Re: [RC] who is captain of the ship - Barbara McCrary
I think I pretty much agree with you,
Bob. The placing in a ride has true significance. But if people
keep worrying about how terrible it is having the occasional horse die (and
I'm not suggesting it's OK, mind you), then what is the solution but to stop the
speed motive? We want our cake, but want to be able to eat it, too.
If we want racing, then we are going to have to accept the fact that a horse
will die occasionally. Unless, of course, we find some way to prevent
death. I don't have a truly useful solution, does anyone
else?
Well, racing has been associated with
horses since time immemorial. The Greeks, the Romans and many tribes before
them. The Mongols, even the first settlers in this country raced their horses.
And after all these centuries, endurance
the epitome of true racing, is facing a breed of rider not enthused with
speed? ATRC, American Trail Ride Association just does not do it for
me.
Bob
Bob Morris Morris Endurance Enterprises Boise, ID
-----Original Message----- From:ridecamp-owner@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
[mailto:ridecamp-owner@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx]On Behalf Of Barbara
McCrary Sent: Thursday, October 30, 2003 1:44 PM To:
McGann, Barb; ridecamp Subject: Re: [RC] who is captain of the
ship
A good part of my questions are
meant to prod people into thinking about racing and the possible resulting
damage to horses. Part of it is "tongue in cheek". Part of it is
playing "devil's advocate". And part of it is directed to the
possibility of some other way to conduct endurance rides, since most people
agree that speed is a "killer". I'm not even sure whether I even like
the idea myself, but I thought I would throw it out there for people to
contemplate. Maybe it will get people to thinking about other
possibilities.
I'm sitting here trying to honestly
imagine what a ride like that would be like. If we didn't award
speed, what would we award? Best Conditon?
Ok, so 50 or 60 riders get together to
go for a looong trail ride. You gather at the starting line and
everyone moseys out of camp. Some people want to walk, some want to
trot and a few might even want to canter, so you start spreading out along
the trail. Ride all day with no pressure. Finish the ride and
stand for Best Condition (everyone would get to stand for it, since
placings wouldn't determine anything). The speed element would have
to be taken out of it, too, so the only things that would count are horse
condition and rider weight (as a heavy-weight rider myself -
woohoo!). Since horse condition is at least partially related to how
fast you rode, we would have a 30-way tie for Turtle award!
Now, since the only challenge left is
against the trail (certainly not other riders and not against your
personal best time, etc), what do you want to bet that the ride managers
will start saying, well lets make the trail a REAL challenge. Lets
put those riders up over Mt. Baldy and through the glaciers, that'll be a
real test. (Been there, done that...don't get me started about the 50
mile ride that the winner took over 9 1/2 hrs).
Also, since the ride vets will have a
hell of a time judging 50 or 60 horses at the end and determining BC, we
would need to evolve a complicated point system to assign values to each
parameter judged all through the ride, so we wouldn't have 10-way ties on
BC. (The more points possible, the less chance of ties). The
vets wouldn't have to do as much vetting, but they'd have to do a lot more
"judging". Of course, there would be a lot of "Well, the reason I
didn't win is that judge(vet) doesn't like me".
Since I am a mid-pack or
back-of-the-pack rider, I'm not automatically against this, just that I'm
not sure what the allure would be to get me to drive hundreds of
miles, spents thousands of $, to do group trail rides. If this was
what would draw us, then why aren't we doing NATRC or Chief Joseph trail
rides which are readily available?
Its just that there is something
really special about cruising along thinking you are 15th and finding out
you were really 9th! Or that you were 45th out of 90 - on that
particular day, you and your horse performed better than 45 others.
And having experienced show and NATRC, that was the thing that drew
me to this sport - the fact that you are competing against the
clock! There's not shades of gray, no "he didn't like me", just
your performance measured by an impartial clock.
Barb McGann, AERC #840
-----Original Message----- From:
ridecamp-owner@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
[mailto:ridecamp-owner@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx]On Behalf Of Barbara
McCrary Sent: Thursday, October 30, 2003 12:16
PM To: Howard Bramhall; ridecamp Subject: Re: [RC]
who is captain of the ship
If we didn't award speed,
would the problems go away? What would happen if we only went out
to ride for the pleasure, the experience, and the adventure? What
would happen if AERC did not recognize speed? Would everyone quite
the sport?
